From 1 December 2023, Google will be able to suspend accounts and delete data from all inactive accounts that have not been used for at least two years.
If this applies to you and you want to keep your account, continue reading.
The tech giant says it will delete all content from the accounts in question, from emails to photos and various documents created and stored on the platform. So, if you’ve left an old account that you don’t use, but don’t want its content to disappear forever, you can save your account and keep it intact. Want to find out?
How to save your Google account?
To “reactivate” an account, simply log in to it once, without taking any particular action. Simply logging in and performing a Google search, reading an email, looking at YouTube or Drive, or downloading a mobile application using this account is enough to make it active again. In all cases, Google will send several notifications before deleting an account, including to a recovery address, if one has been provided.
Note that this measure only applies to personal accounts, not those linked to an employer, school or other organization. Nor does it apply to anyone with a paid-for Google One account.
To avoid any unpleasant surprises in the weeks to come, we strongly advise you to log in to your old, sometimes forgotten, accounts. And if you find any important documents there, you can transfer them to your main account by going to Google Takeout. Select all the data you want to download, then copy it service by service to your other account. Then you won’t have to worry about keeping your old account active.
